Architectural education has many features in common with art education. Still, in most countries, architecture departments are acting as one-faculty universities, although they might be parts of large organisations; their autonomy partly secures a privileged and secluded, almost monastic character of the department. This means that architectural education has a great impact on the formation of architects. Furthermore, the knowledge of architecture is more or less based on the values implemented during the early years of an architect’s training. Thus, practice, research and education become closely knit together into a systematic relation. Reyner Banham was probably the first historian to acknowledge architectural education as an important factor in the development of modern architecture. In his Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1960), Banham introduced what might be seen as a hermeneutical triangle, identifying academy, arts & crafts and polytechnics as the main traditions in modern architecture. However, these traditions were received, combined and synthesized in different ways in each country and at each particular school. This explains why both curriculum and pedagogy are seemingly alike in an international comparison, although there might be important differences between the schools, difficult to analyse and acknowledge. A detailed study of the formation of architects from within the profession, taking into account the combined relations of education, research and professional practice does not exist at the moment, although the interest in architectural education is currently resulting in books, projects, seminars and networks of different kinds.

3.

Bergström, Anders

KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Architecture.

The crisis of the architectural profession during the 1970s fostered an interest in the professional relationship between practice and education. Following its publication in 1991, Dana Cuff's book, Architecture: The Story of Practice, soon became a standard reference in this field, insisting that education should be counted as a part of practice. This historiographical essay concentrates on the background of Cuff's work and her analysis of the early training of an architect, stressing contributions by contemporary scholars like Donald Schon. Through a critical examination of the design-studio dominance in architectural education, it also reconsiders the relevance of Cuff's work today.

The decline of the welfare state is often connected with a change in attitudes towards politics, technology and environmental consciousness. However, this change may also be connected with new attitudes towards science. As science philosophers like Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn questioned the accumulation of research through positivism and linear models,this critique undermined the epistemological foundations of social engineering and thus the legitimacy of the welfare state.

This paper will discuss the epistemological turn that took place in architecture during the 1960s, 70s and 80s, focusing on the relationship between architectural practice and education while analysing some of the texts that appeared during this period. The body of these texts are of American origin, but their impact goes far beyond the development in the United States. As an example, Sweden fits perfectly into the discourse introduced in American architecture.

A dominating feature of this discourse was the rise of professional practice in architecture. The introduction of a new epistemology is evident already in the early 1960s, when Stanford Anderson took Popper’s theory on conjecture and refutation as his departure. During the 1970s, modern science remained an inspiration for architectural scholars like Colin Rowe, who drew on Popper’s critique of utopia while criticising Kuhn’s paradigm theory on the structure of scientific revolutions.

By the late 1970s, the importance of investigating the social foundations of professional practice was confirmed by Spiro Kostof’s influential anthology on The Architect (1977). This book started a new research tradition, which reached its peak more than a decade later, when Dana Cuff published her important book Architecture: The Story of Practice (1991). Cuff also took the opportunity to criticise the profession, proposing possible areas for future change.

In the field of education, this rethinking of the social in architecture found its philosopher in Donald Schön, who devoted himself to an epistemology of practice. His starting point was the crisis of confidence experienced in many schools of architecture during the 1970s. In his seminal work, The Reflective Practitioner (1983), Schön observed how professionals act in social situations. Strengthening the legitimacy of his arguments with references to both Popper and Kuhn, he also secured a place for architectural practice in modern science.

However, Schön did not choose actual professional practices for his study but pedagogical situations in design studios at different American schools of architecture. Thus, the design studio became the norm not just for architectural education but for professional practice as well. Highly influential among educators, Schön’s contribution cannot be overestimated. Through the reflective practitioner, the sense of crisis of the 1970s could be replaced by a newly born professional pride.

Today, the rapid development of information technology calls for a new reform in architectural education. In Sweden, the balance between design studio and classroom pedagogy seems to be developing in favour of classroom courses. Thus, the recent heyday of the design studio seems to be over for now, but the question of architectural epistemology still remains to be answered.

7.

Bergström, Anders

KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Architecture, History and Theory of Architecture.

This article deals with the image of the Swedish architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger (1654-1728), one of the main characters in the history of Swedish architecture. The image of Tessin was established by Swedish art historians at the beginning of the Twentieth century, partly as a parallel to other architects of a national reputation, notably Christopher Wren and Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The article concentrates on the image established by the Swedish art historian Ragnar Josephson in creating his monumental monograph Tessin, published in two volumes 1930-31. However, alternative images of Tessin, established by Josephson's contemporary colleagues, are used as comparative references. The article also offers a brief outline of the earlier periods of research on Tessin, and eventually emphasizes the importance of further research in the field of architectural historiography.

This essay deals with the image of the Swedish architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger (1654-1728), one of the main characters in the history of Swedish architecture. The image of Tessin was established by Swedish art historians at the beginning of the Twentieth century, partly as a parallel to other architects of a national reputation, notably Christopher Wren and Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The essay concentrates on the image established by the Swedish art historian Ragnar Josephson in creating his monumental monograph Tessin, published in two volumes 1930-31. However, alternative images of Tessin, established by Josephson's contemporary colleagues, are used as comparative references. The essay also offers a brief outline of the national paradigm in architecture, established at the turn of the century 1900 in collaboration between architects and art historians.

9.

Bergström, Anders

KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Architecture, History and Theory of Architecture.

This article deals with the historical reception of modern public buildings, advocating further research in this field in order to understand the role of monuments in the canon of modern architecture. Sweden’s most referred building in an international context, the Stockholm Public Library, serves here as a case study. Paradoxically, the library is still not officially listed, although most experts would agree on its importance, but this is not unusual with modern monuments of the 20th Century. On the contrary, modern public buildings constitute a mere fraction of Sweden’s built heritage, managed by the National Property Board.

Ever since Stockholm Public Library was completed in 1928, its reception has continuously changed over the years, both for ideological reasons and in response to practical demands. Originally, the monumental character of the building was partly criticised, while its rational organisation was generally acknowledged. From a Swedish perspective, the library was overshadowed by the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930. Thus, in the national historiography of Swedish architecture, the library has been interpreted as the final monument of Nordic classicism. However, from an international point of view, the library was included in the canon of modern architecture during the late 1970s. Its Post-Modern fame climaxed in 1985, in connection with the centenary of the architect, Gunnar Asplund.

More recently, in 2006–07, after the decline of the Post-Modern movement, the library was reappraised in an international competition for its enlargement. Following the competition, the plan for the extension was heavily criticised, both nationally and internationally, and the project was finally abandoned. The article holds that, given better knowledge of the library's international status, this reaction would have been foreseeable. In other words, analyses of the historical reception might serve to indicate possible examples of conflict in future heritage practice.

In the Old Town of Stockholm, the main part of a burial complex for the German congregation still exists, constructed at the beginning of the 18th century. Construction work started already in 1716, but work was delayed until mid 1720s, and the building was first completed in 1735, to the design of sculptor Burchardt Precht. The original building complex had the character of a closed courtyard. In the great fire of 1878, however, adjacent parts were destroyed, and the current building represents only one part of the original burial complex.

12.

Bergström, Anders

KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Architecture, History and Theory of Architecture.

Anders Tengbom started his career as a student of architecture at KTH after the closing of the Stockholm Exhibition 1930. Large-scale office buildings and hospital design proved to be Tengbom's main contribution to the Swedish post-war building program. Furthermore, in collaboration with Ralph Erskine and Léonie Geisendorf, he advocated an alternative vision for the rebuilding of the Stockholm city centre that played an important role in the urban debate of the 1960s.

In a somewhat scornful manner, the Renaissance architecture of northern Europe has sometimes been interpreted as a product of artless pattern books. At the turn of the century 1900, such overwhelming ornamentality could be seen as a parallel to Art Noveau, which should be used with caution. Interpreted as an early combination of classical knowledge with local tradition, however, these buildings also worked as alternatives to the 19th century practice of style, and thus as models of early modern architecture.

In the Old Town of Stockholm, the main part of a burial complex for the German congregation still exists, constructed at the beginning of the 18th century. Construction work started already in 1716, but work was delayed until mid 1720s, and the building was first completed in 1735, to the design of sculptor Burchardt Precht. The original building complex had the character of a closed courtyard. In the great fire of 1878, however, adjacent parts were destroyed, and the current building represents only one part of the original burial complex.

The opening of Stockholm Public Library in 1928 was the last step in a long series of considerations, since the idea originated in Sweden at the turn of the century 1900. At that time there were numerous libraries in Stockholm, each organised to meet the demands of people from different classes. However, the contemporary development towards extended civic rights called for cooperation, and a special committee launched an official proposal for a central library in 1912.

When Gunnar Asplund joined the committee as architect in 1918, the design of the building was already subject to study by expert librarians. Thus, Asplund's work focused on a synthesis of existing ideas rather than personal invention. Asplund's assignment was to create an overall design, which combined a both functional and symbolic approach. Among Asplund's colleagues in the committee, the idea of public libraries was presented as emanating from the French revolution. Accordingly, Stockholm Public Library has been interpreted as "revolutionary architecture" in the tradition of Ledoux and Boullée. However, since such projects did not appear in popular publication until early 1930:s, Asplund's design seems to be based on other sources.

As a part of his preliminary work for the committee, Asplund travelled to the United States in 1920, visiting modern public libraries. During his visit, Asplund was also introduced to American examples of revolutionary architecture, based on French sources. Paradoxically, American public buildings offered a vivid experience, consisting of actual buildings rather than mere projects.

In the official report, published by the committee in 1921, Asplund analysed the results of his American studies in connection with his contemporary project for the library. His programme is easily summarised; since common knowledge was to be found mostly in books, it must be the aim to supply the citizens with the books they want at short hand. The path to knowledge should thus be designed as the easiest way to find a certain book, without great effort and hesitation.

For security reasons the path to knowledge had better be thoroughly organised. Asplund took advantage of this fact, leading the visitor through a veritable "rite of passage", combining both the functional and symbolic demands of the library. However, since public libraries were expected to be modest in character, Asplund's symbolic approach was rather criticised from a social perspective.

Eventually, to understand Asplund's design, it is important to note that the library was to meet the demands of people from all ages and classes. To secure the status of the library among the citizens, it was equally important to attract more demanding visitors. This called for a monumental approach, based on a rather traditional view of society. In fact, far from being a worker's initiative, Stockholm Public Library was in many ways a conservative project.

28.

Bergström, Anders

KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Architecture, History and Theory of Architecture.

This article deals with the origin of the 17th century fortified towns in the former borderlands between Sweden and Denmark, with special emphasis on Kristianstad, Kalmar and Karlskrona. These towns, established between 1614 and 1680, mirror contemporary developments in architecture, urban planning and fortifications engineering. They also point to the interaction between military, commercial and prestige-related requirements.

On starting point here is the notion of the ideal fortified town as being characterised by deliberate partnership between military fortifications and civilian settlement. Even the private houses were regulated, and the public buildings played an important role in giving the towns a symbolic and becoming outward appearance. This is an important reason for the fortified towns including some of the foremost buildings of the age in Sweden and Denmark.

The article also discusses the relationship between different professions, such as architects and engineers. Previous research has often highlighted the architects at the expense of the engineers. Well-known architect names – Tessin for exemple – have been associated with town plans and individual buildings without the source material warranting any such assumptions. In other words, previous research is open to further development and revision in a number of fields relating to the interaction of military and civilian architecture during the 17th century.

31.

Bergström, Anders

KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Architecture, History and Theory of Architecture.

Ever since its foundation in 1877, the School of Architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm has been susceptible to international theory. The archive and the library at the present School of Architecture contain numerous examples; in this section we intend to present material as part of a continous project to acknowledge the history and theory of architectural education.

The starting point is a book that plays an important part in the history of early modern architecture in Sweden. Following the publication of "Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen" in 1889, the Austrian architect Camillo Sitte was particularly well received in Sweden and became one of the most influential theorists in the field of architecture and urban planning.

The Swedish reception of Sitte is closely connected to the architect Per Hallman (1869–1941), who promoted Sitte's ideas in his practice as an urban planner. Hallman introduced Sitte's ideas in a lecture in Stockholm as early as 1895, clearly inspired by a close reading of "Der Städtebau". His own copy of the first edition still exists in the Library of Architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology. As a PhD-student, I found this worn-out, fragile book almost fifteeen years ago, marked with Hallman's personal ex libris and generously filled with notes in the margins.

Hallman's comments on Sitte's text make for fascinating reading, especially since Hallman also had the opportunity to use Sitte's ideas in his practice as a teacher. As the leading Swedish practitioner in his field, Hallman was appointed the first Associate Professor in Urban Planning at the Royal Institute of Technology in 1897, although a permanent position was not granted until 1914. Besides his work as an urban planner, he stayed on as a teacher until 1934, when Sitte's ideas on planning had long lost its significance. However, his influence can still be traced in different ways.

One of the most prestigious precincts in Stockholm, planned by Hallman in 1907-08, is the mountainous area adjacent to the present School of Architecture. In this context, Hallman solved the problems introduced by the terrain through an ingenious use of Sitte's methods of irregular planning. It is evident that this situation was taken into account in the design process of the present building for the School of Architecture, which was completed in 1970.

A decade earlier, an architectural critic, Thomas Paulsson, had acknowledged Hallman's work in a thesis, concentrating on the forgotten values of earlier planning policies. The urban planning at the turn of the century 1900 could thus be incorporated in the urban appraisal in architectural theory during the 1960s. Later on, architect Göran Sidenbladh, fornerly responsible for the reconstruction of the central parts of Stockholm, even published a Swedish translation of "Der Städtebau".

Following the critique towards the city's earlier policy, Sidenbladh's translation may be interpreted as a late memento. Although Sitte's irregular method is no longer the answer to the questions of urban planning, "Der Städtebau" still holds a prominent position in the history and theory of early modern architecture in Sweden.

Through the history of modern architecture, avant-garde periodicals have played an important part in implementing new theoretical perspectives. Swedish architecture is no exception, although "Spektrum", the first generally acknowledged avant-garde periodical in Sweden, started with literature as its main object. "Spektrum" was founded in 1931 by the Russian immigrant Josef Riwkin. The first editors were the writer, Karin Boye, together with the literary critic, Erik Mesterton, later joined by poet Gunnar Ekelöf.

Economic difficulties, following the Kreuger affair in spring 1932, forced the publisher to reorient towards architecture, thus attracting advertisers from the building industry. The first issue on architecture was called "Arkitektur och samhälle" (Architecture and Society) and was in fact identical with the last issue of "Spektrum". During the next three years, "Arkitektur och samhälle" took a radical position in promoting modern architecture. Later on, it gradually changed its position, eventually advocating reactionary ideas, paradoxically contrary to those promoted in the first issues.

The Library of Architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology contains a single copy of the first issue of "Arkitektur och samhälle". Unfortunately, as this issue was originally spiral bound, cover and title page are missing. The cover was extremely fragile, made from Salubra wallpaper, of the collection designed by Le Corbusier. Furthermore, a photographic composition by El Lissitzky was printed on the cover, which is documented in the Royal Library and the Museum of Architecture in Stockholm.

Editor of this first issue was architect Sven Markelius, most probably cooperating with his fiancé, Viola Wahlstedt, a professional journalist, who had previously been a co-editor of "Spektrum". Markelius invited a prestigious group of writers: architects, art historians, and critics from his personal network. Although Alvar Aalto and Gregor Paulsson were among the contributors, the only text later acknowledged was written by Gotthard Johansson, at that time an influential critic, strongly promoting modern architecture or "functionalism"– the notion that he preferred to use.

In his article, "Är funktionalismen en stil?" (Is Functionalism a Style?), Gotthard Johansson took the chance of criticising a contemporary approach to architecture, advocated by art historian Heinrich Wölfflin and later further developed by Wölfflin's disciples Sigfried Giedion and Nikolaus Pevsner. Wölfflin's approach was based on perception and a new concept of space, which priviliged formal qualities and neglected cultural and historical aspects. In Sweden, this approach had recently been acknowledged by Gunnar Asplund, in his inaugural lecture as professor of Architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology in 1931.

Thus, Gotthard Johansson's aim was to contribute to an ideological debate, and he strongly opposed the idea that architecture was the product of formal qualities. From his point of view, no formal approaches were sufficient, no matter if they were based on psychology or on philosophy. Instead, he advocated a cultural approach to architecture, based partly on the use of material and technique, partly on the practical use of the actual building. Eventually, he exclaimed that functionalism demanded a new science of architectural history, focusing on architecture as a cultural phenomenon.

Later on, these ideas played an important part in the foundation of architectural research on housing and planning in Sweden. In 1939, Gotthard Johansson took charge of the first official housing research programme, initiated by the Swedish Society of Arts and Crafts, together with the National Association of Swedish Architects. That marked the beginning of an era of architectural research, strongly influencing architectural practice and education. However, by that time, "Spektrum" had long lost its significance for an avant-garde that was already well established in society.

Universities, like many other institutions in today’s society, are to such an extent connected to their buildings that activity and built structures can be difficult to separate from each other. What we can begin to see is how people have always used building to establish and maintain both societal functions and more everyday customs and practices. Activities that manage to establish themselves in built form become a natural and supportive part of our material reality, whereas activities that do not may have problems surviving. In our times, characterized by continuous change, established solutions can also be in the way of new development and hinder us from seeing how the built environment could be designed in a different way.

Seen from this perspective, KI – Karolinska Institutet – constitutes an interesting example between consciously shaped environment and highly qualified academic activity. Karolinska Institutet is since long one of Swedens most creative knowledge environments. The institute’s buildings have come to over a long period of time and is characterized by high ambitions, where different ideas of the conditions of knowledge production have governed both the overall plan and the design of individual buildings. By clarifying these ideas, and simultaneously investigating how the built result works, we hope to contribute not only to the understanding of the development of Karolinska Institutet, but to e more general knowledge of the relation between architecture and knowledge environment as well.

North of Stockholm, on the island of Lidingö, the Swedish-American sculptor Carl Milles started in 1908 to build his well-known artist studio, combined with a garden, which is now called Millesgården. Although Milles was indeed both prolific and productive as a sculptor, his studio may may well be mentioned as the most distinguished result of his career.

In this book, the design and construction of the studio as well as the layout of the garden is described and analysed in connection with the contemporary development of architecture and gardening. Through recurrent renovations, the whole studio eventually turned into a monument – a garden of memory – and a true expression of Milles's ambitions as an artist.

39.

Edman, Victor

et al.

KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Architecture, History and Theory of Architecture.

Bergström, AndersKTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Architecture, History and Theory of Architecture.

Academia has a long tradition of structuring itself around academic subjects, often epitomized through architectural manifestations such as individual buildings and whole campi. These materializations serve as sites of research and education, but also serve to describe the university as whole as well as its institutional parts, their definitions and their interrelations. This description goes deeper than simple definition of specific buildings for specific activities or subjects, but rather describes the idea of academic structures and relations between different people in the campi. This paper makes a comparative study of one of the more successful research universities in Stockholm, studying the use of spatial configuration and programming when the main campus was established in the first decade after the second world war, and how it was used in the following large-scale expansion beginning in the 1960s. It shows how, for both pragmatic and ideological reasons, radical shifts in the relation between buildings and academic subjects, as well as academic individuals and the units central to these descriptions, have taken place in the years in-between, and scrutinizes some of the effects coming with such a change.